David Cameron to be first Tory leader to join Gay Pride march

David Cameron is going back to his touchy-feely agenda by becoming the first Tory leader to appear on an openly gay platform.

I can reveal he has accepted an invitation to join a celebration at this year's Gay Pride event in London.

Coming just days after being accused of
returning to traditional Tory themes with his promise to make thrift a
priority in a Conservative government, Cameron is nailing his colours
to the pink mast.

The move is bound to upset some figures in the party who have never felt comfortable with his approach to gay issues. For
his fellow speakers will include figures who want the Tories to embrace
gay adoptions and extend the equality programme to outlaw the
discrimination of gays by hoteliers.

Cameron will take part in the 'pride at
the Paramount' event on June 30, at Centrepoint, organised by lesbian
Tory parliamentary candidate Margot James.

Bloom to star in Dr Who

She is one of Britain's most accomplished actresses - discovered by Charlie Chaplin, she catapulted to fame in his film Limelight - and her 60-year career has seen her star with, and romance, some of Hollywood's greatest stars.

Now Claire Bloom, whose luminous beauty captivated Richard Burton and Laurence Olivier, is to take on her most unexpected role.

Aged 78, she is, I can reveal, to star in the new series of Dr Who. Her invitation to join the cast of one of TV's most enduring institutions has been kept a closely guarded secret, but I understand she will be seen playing the intergalactic Time Lord's mother.

The latest series, starring David Tennant as the Doctor, is being filmed in Cardiff. But the casting of Bloom, who has rarely been out of work since the age of 17, is a remarkable coup.

New role: Actress Claire Bloom

It was Burton who became the love of Claire's life. They appeared together in Hamlet, Look Back In Anger and in the film The Spy Who Came In From The Cold.

She became cinema's sweetheart, but off-screen Claire's domestic life was complicated.

Olivier, who cast her in the film version of his Richard III, was a lover. So, too, Yul Brynner and Anthony Quinn.

She was married three times, first to tough guy actor Rod Steiger and secondly to producer Hillard Elkins. Her last marriage, to the writer Philip Roth, ended after just five stormy years.

Bloom is understood to be thrilled by her new role.

'Claire may have had a phenomenal career, but the truth is she needs the work,' reveals a friend of the actress, who lives alone in Fulham with her cat.

'The script is a very closely guarded secret, as the producers are desperate for Claire's appearance to be a surprise.'

A BBC spokesman declines to comment, but Claire's manager in America, Marion Rosenberg, tells me: 'It is happening. They are filming at the moment. I have been organising her schedule.'

Sixteen years after Martyn Lewis lamented the dearth of good news on TV, the former BBC presenter has renewed his campaign to have the current diet of doom-and-gloom leavened with more upbeat items.

Lewis, 64, who retired a decade ago, was vilified when he observed that the constant round of crime and catastrophe sapped the nation's mental health and should be balanced with something more cheery.

'There is even more bad news about now than in 1993. Life is not all misery and gloom,' he tells me at the Diplomat magazine awards ceremony at the Churchill Hotel.

All in the name of art . . .

Publishing heir Dan Macmillan, 34, and his leggy Ukrainian girlfriend Sasha Volkova, 25, were among the open-mouthed crowd at Sketch for the launch of Moscow art festival AngloMockBa. They looked on as artist Meredith Ostrum, 32, slid out of her dress, daubed herself in oils and pressed her naked body across a blank canvas.

Sasha Volkova was part of the crowd at Sketch

'She's one of the bravest girls I know,' says Sasha, a former squeeze of bad boy actor Mickey Rourke and Guns N' Roses singer Axl Rose.

'We were on a trip to Klosters and Meredith asked if I wanted to do one of the pictures too, but I didn't want to get my t*** dirty,' she says. 'Instead, I watched and she did one for me, in a G-string. It's now it's hanging in my apartment in London.'

Sasha also revealed that Meredith's ex, Duran Duran star Nick Rhodes, from whom she split in February, was the inspiration behind one of the artist's more unusual works. 'It has her footprints going around in a circle. She said she did it because when she broke up with Nick she felt she had been walked all over.'

Hannah hopes to sail to success

After leading the youngest crew ever at Cowes Week, sailor Hannah White was understandably devastated when her subsequent attempt to cross the Atlantic single-handedly was scuppered by engine failure.

Now the 25-year-old is trying again, in the 2,800-mile OSTAR race next month.

'This time I'll swim to the end if I have to,' says Hannah, who hopes to complete the voyage in her boat Pure Solo. 'If I can do it this time then I can get on with the rest of my life. Last time I was naive, I thought I could have fun and it would just happen.

Determined: Hannah White

'When I first began sailing at Cowes it was one long week of boys, beer and parties - now it's more about hard work.'

Introduced to sailing at The Godolphin boarding school in Salisbury, Hannah - whose Cowes boat was sponsored by Queen's Roger Taylor and Brian May, and writer Ben Elton - admits there are advantages to being a woman in a sport dominated by men. 'It is good from a sponsorship point of view, as we get more attention,' she says.

'Expectations are less, so when you do well it surprises people.'

He advises clients that showbusiness is 20 per cent intelligence, 20 per cent manipulation and 60 per cent luck. Unfortunately for cigar-chomping agent Jon Roseman, his own luck has run out.

His agency - which looked after GMTV's Penny Smith, writer Stanley Johnson and Strictly Come Dancing's Brendan Cole - has gone into administration, a victim of the credit crunch.

An agent since the Seventies, Roseman has represented the likes of Fern Britton, Carol Vorderman and Kate Garraway.

In a missive to former clients, Roseman says: 'Sadly it has not been possible for the agency to continue in this difficult climate. It was a pleasure representing you. I am truly sorry that the agency has had to close.

'Obviously, you are now free to contact other agents to represent you.'

PS

Some of racing's biggest names were celebrating yesterday after successfully protesting against the Earl of Derby's plans to concrete over a vast swathe of Newmarket.

The Old Etonian owner of Ouija board wants to use land, inherited from his racing-mad uncle, the 18th earl, to build 1,200 homes.

But racing grandees such as Henry Cecil and John Gosden were among those at Newmarket's memorial hall to see councillors throw out the plans.

Gosden's wife Rachel Hood, who led the opposition, says: 'It was great to see such support from trainers.'